The barn taken down last month on W. Prospect Avenue was not far from the intersection with Bluemound Drive in the Town of Menasha. / Maureen Wallenfang/Post-Crescent Media

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Maureen Wallenfang

Post-Crescent Media

Touchmark removed barn from newly acquired property, the colorful figurine of a man with his donkey on West Prospect remain for now. / Maureen Wallenfang/Post-Crescent Media

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Reader question: Touchmark is expanding on West Prospect Avenue. An old barn was demolished presumably to prepare for this expansion. However, a colorful figurine of a man with his donkey was salvaged and remains there, partially covered by a blue tarp for several weeks now. Is there any significance to this, and what will become of it when the new construction begins?

Answer: Touchmark on West Prospect, a retirement and assisted living facility in the Town of Menasha, is indeed expanding. But its expansion has nothing to do with the barn.

“The barn, the house and the outbuildings were in a pretty significant state of disrepair, so we had them taken down. The barn was was not a safe environment and was not safe to stay standing. It was not eligible for (historic) registry,” said Barb Pandolfo, Touchmark’s executive director. “It was hanging by a wing and a prayer. It came down very easily and the wood snapped like tinder. It was very dry.”

Touchmark purchased the property from the Hammes family in late 2013. The entire Touchmark property at one time had been part of the farm.

Pandolfo said some of the usable barn wood is being recycled on the property. Besides a gazebo, some of the wood will be incorporated into a new bistro/coffeehouse for residents and their guests inside the lobby. It’s part of a $2 million building renovation project, she said.

In addition, Touchmark is nearing the completion of a $9 million expansion, a wing on the back of its building. “We will begin offering memory care and a higher care level of assisted living at the end of the summer,” she said.

Pandolfo said the iron statues of the man and donkey are being offered to the man who originally gave them to the Hammes family. Touchmark has “no specific plans” for the land where the barn and house stood, she said. “We just want to make it a nice green space.”